


Menace DNA

by lilredsoupbowl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 12:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/861922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilredsoupbowl/pseuds/lilredsoupbowl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal and Emma find out that their son has stolen their car and gone off on a joyride at four in the morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Menace DNA

Somehow, he'd managed to sleep through the phone ringing off the hook in the kitchen; the shifting weight next to him. Neal finally awoke to an earthquake; to his lover shaking him relentlessly. Opening his eyes, he found Emma standing over their bed; brow creased in worry.

"Henry stole the bug!" That's all she said; the only motivation she felt needed to have him lunging upward; jumping out of bed and into action! She sat at the foot of the bed, lacing her boots as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

"Whaaa-"

"Our son has stolen our car. And, from what Jefferson screamed at me over the phone, is running away with Grace; some kind of crazy road trip!"

"Gee, wonder where he gets it?"

"No! You don't get to be the 'cool parent' about this! He is fourteen years old – driving a fourteen year old girl around at four in the morning! This isn't some 'kids will be kids' moment. It's dangerous out there- "

"I showed Henry how to drive the bug last Saturday – when you were at the station. Kid's a natural!"

"Wonderful," Emma's voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now I'm not worried at all! Did you also teach our son how to place a ladder under a girl's window; sweeping her away in the dead of night!"

"No, we haven't really gotten into the 'sweeping girls' away' lessons yet… thought I had another year at least – "

"Well apparently not!"

She yanked the quilt from the bed; grabbing him by the ear into an upward position.

"You have a minute, Neal, to be dressed and ready to search for Henry. After said minute, I'm dragging you out of this house in whatever state I find you in –"

Crooking his head to the side, Neal raised an eyebrow, "…kinky."

"Oh! Shut up and get ready! We need to find Henry before Jefferson gets his hands on him!"

Neal was just slipping on his coat and scarf when his minute was up; Emma appearing in the room once again to drag him down the stairs and through the front door. A car was waiting at the curb; engine blaring in the still, early morning.

"I'll remind you that this man has drugged me, held both my mother and I captive, and threated to castrate our son – we need to be on our guard but civil," explained Emma as she moved to the other side, opening the passenger-side door. Releasing a breath to calm himself, Neal moved for the backseat.

Upon entering the car, Jefferson gave him a stiff nod in greeting via the rearview mirror.

"I think we should start behind the school," explained Emma in an attempt to break the tension. "- And then maybe move along the coast.. around Henry's castle –"

Jefferson shifted the car into 'drive'; heading towards the school.

If only he hadn't been insistent that Emma start leaving the cruiser at the station, Neal berated himself. He'd been so fixated on them using the bug as their car again; the family car. He never question that they may need to have two serviceable cars when Emma was off duty.

As they neared the school, Emma was leaning out the passenger window; scanning the scenery with a flashlight.

"Nothing," she confirmed as they passed the school playground.

"I just," Jefferson clutched the wheel. "I don't understand why your son decided to manipulate Grace into something like this – she would never –"

"How do you know Henry's to blame?" chirped Neal from the back.

"Seems to me a girl can't place a ladder under her own window. Plus, Henry took your keys, probably stored the ladder somewhere on my grounds in anticipate –"

"You're making my son out to be some type of criminal mastermind!"

Emma turned around in her seat, raising an eyebrow at him.

"…And even if my son did plan certain 'aspects' of this scheme, it's not like Grace was some passive player in all this. Henry took our keys, allegedly stored a ladder – but it's not like he carried the girl down it!"

"Not that I can currently prove!"

"Wait, wait, wait – you think my son has kidnaped your daughter? She's his friend!"

"Both of you need to calm down! This isn't helping us find them at all – and Jefferson, for what it's worth, Henry has never kidnapped anyone before.."

Neal and Jefferson both almost missed her whisper under her breath,

"- that I know of."

Jefferson was quick to round on that, glancing back in his rearview mirror to Neal.

"You see! His own mother is doubting – "

"Let me clarify – I don't think Henry would do so maliciously! Not at all! Just – he'd wonder if he could get away with it, plot everything out and try it to see –"

"Your son is a public menace! – you both realize it, right? How did he learn to drive a car, anyways?"

"…. I taught him.."

An awkward silence fell over the car. Jefferson fearful of continuing his rant, Emma wondering if Henry was capable of kidnaping another child, and Neal lamenting if 'public menace' was encoded in DNA; passed down through generations.

And then, the headlights bounced off a reflective, yellow surface. Parked in a ditch, a couple feet away from the Storybrooke border, was the yellow bug. Their yellow bug.

Through the back window, Neal noticed the lights from two flashlights dancing about; almost like the two kids were battling with them; play-fighting. The image made Neal smile, but the other two raced out of the car – and he decided to trail behind them. He was a parent after all, too!

Jefferson yanked the backdoor open. For a moment, Neal opened his mouth to tell him to go easy on his 'baby'. The car was an antique! But one look from Emma silenced him, as all three parents craned their necks to peer into the backseat. Henry and Grace coward in the far corner; arms wrapped around the other tightly; clinging. On the seat between them and their parents were maps – the maps Neal had collected over the years of nomadic life and joking put in the glove box the day he and Emma officially reconciled. He'd meant it as a symbol; that he was finally settled; that he would stay for her. – And Emma, in all her glory, took it as maps of future adventures yet to be had together. Looks like Henry had as well!

Jefferson reached over the maps and grabbed a hold of his daughter, pulling her out. She put up a fight. Grabbing hold of Henry's hand; and when their little hands' slipped, she even tried to latch onto the car's door. All in vain. Jefferson pulled her towards his car; Neal hearing Jefferson asking repeatedly 'are you alright?'.

Henry had leaped out of the backseat, bounding after her – only to be restrained by his mother.

"GRACE!," his son shrieked into the night. Jefferson tried to quickly move her into the car but not before Henry exclaimed, "I love you Grace!"

Neal saw his son's proclaimed love's face light-up. Suddenly a slip of a girl, someone he'd never really noticed before besides being a playmate of his son – she was radiant. He looked to his son, who's face he'd studied time after time; pasting together the details that were his and Emma's; a face he'd memorized within the first days of being a parent – in case Emma told him to leave; if he only got to see the kid a week or two a year, he wanted to know everything. The changes and growth. He found his little son looking like a determined teenager – staring at a beautiful, young teenage girl and declaring,

"I will always fight for you! Nothing will keep us apart! Nothing can!"

Jefferson seemed to have gone into shock over Henry's confession. Grace raised up on her toes, over the open car door and professed,

"I love you, too! Henry, I know – "

"That's enough!" Jefferson had found his senses again and moved Grace into the car. As he started to cross the car, heading for the driver's side door, Henry rounded on him. Index finger extended, Henry chastised him,

"You can't keep us apart! When two people are meant to –"

Jefferson held up his hands, "Look, kid – I'm not a villain in this. I'm fine with you guys 'hanging out' and being friends.. But not at four in the morning. And not when you both have school in a couple hours. If it happens again: then I'll be keeping you apart."

Before closing the car door, Jefferson leaned over the door to announce,

"I still think you're a bad influence on her – prove me wrong."

As the car pulled away, Grace raised a hand to her mouth; blowing Henry a kiss.

Laughing, Neal placed a hand on his son's shoulder.

"…I'm in love."

"We heard you, kid. Your mom and I both. – now how 'bout we head home so everyone can get a few more hours of sleep?"

Henry nodded, but remained still. Staring off into the distance as Jefferson's car drove done the road; back into town.

Laughing, Emma placed her hand on the top of Henry's head, guiding him into the backseat.

"Well played, lover boy. Well played."

With Henry situated in the back, Emma threw the keys at Neal.

"How about you drive," she said with a wink.

By the time they reached their yellow house, Henry was fading in and out of sleep, mumbling about how he and Grace were going to go exploring the world together.

" – we can now. You and dad – you broke the final curse barrier; she'd remember everything.."

Tucking him into bed, Emma ran a hand through his hair; grinning over his plans.

"You could – but you'd have Jefferson and the police chasing you guys down. Why don't you wait a couple of years? Until you guys are eighteen and Jefferson can't call the cops because you're both minors? I don't want to have to track you down and prevent your adventures -"

When Neal finally made it to their bedroom, he toed off his shoes and threw his pants across the room. Not even capable of mustering the energy to search for his pajama bottoms again, he pulled the quilt back, laid down and closed his eyes – only to find a body landing on top of him, lips pinning him into the mattress. He opened his eyes to find Emma on top of him, prying away her lips only in order to pull off her shirt and toss it behind her.

"I want to make a baby," she explained in a rush, palms already pawing away at his t-shirt.

" – how the hell did tonight's events lead you to –"

"We make good babies."

"Proven in one instance. And, as Jefferson was so kind to mention, he's a menace to society. The next batch could be little sociopaths in the making –"

"They won't be! – I'm mean, yeah, they'll probably be a bit mischievous. Have a certain predisposition towards thievery – but they'd also be funny! Clever and loyal- with excellent driving skills!"

She looked down and bit her lip at the next part. For a second, Neal saw a shy teenager in her – a glimpse of a girl he'd barely known but loved almost instantly.

" – they'd love fiercely. And be loved back. What more could we ask for?"

Looking back at him, she grinned as she shifted her charm.

"And if you successful impregnate me by the end of the month: you get to name the next kid. No if, ands, or buts from me. We have a deal, Cassidy?"

Mind filling with names already, Neal caught himself. He already was a parent. And shouldn't they be dealing with their son before making more?

" – We need to do that whole parenting thing.. a punishment or something for sneaking out of the house and taking the car without our permission?"

Emma rose an eyebrow at that and Neal quickly corrected himself,

"I meant driving underage! Of course it wouldn't have mattered if he'd asked us before hand – or informed us he was off to steal a classmate."

Leaning down to run her tongue along Neal's neck, Emma replied,

"What's that thing the good parents do? Ah- grounding! We'll inform him over breakfast that 'we ground thee!' – for a day or two.."

"I guess that gives us a couple hours to make 'Neal Jr.' or little 'Nealia'-"

Emma's smile faltered.

"You wouldn't actually…there's no way! –"

Rolling her over, Neal smiled down at her.

"You said 'no if, ands, or buts'. Not when we have another menace to make."


End file.
